Mounting means for rollers and the like



Aug. 11, 1964 F. E. DOBSON ETAL 3,143,962

MOUNTING MEANS FOR ROLLERS AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 3, 1962 IN V EN TORfi' 0 Mi 8 a? W 0M% 0 0 5 w .7 2 W. 2% WHY AME m Aug- 1 1964 F. E. DOBSON ETAL 3,143,962

MOUNTING MEANS FOR ROLLERS AND THE LIKE Filed Oct. 3, 962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent Filed Oct. 3, 1962, Ser. No. 228,160 6 Claims. (Cl. 101-248) The present invention relates to printing presses and the like and has particular reference to devices for mounting and precisely resetting or registering printing plate rollers in presses.

In offset printing presses the printing roller carries a printing plate which is removable from the roller so that different plates may be used on the same roller fordifferent printing operations. Usually the plates are stored when not in use and are clamped on the roller whenin use. However, in some cases the entire roller is removed and stored, in which case a separate roller is required for each printing operation.

In changing the plates or replacing the rollers in the presses, considerable difficulty is experienced and time consumed in resetting the plates and/ or the rollers so as to effect proper axial and peripheral registration of the design with the work to be printed upon.

It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide a mounting for a printing roller which permits of the easy removal and replacement of the roller and additionally provides for precise resetting of the rollers and the printing plate carried thereon to produce proper registration of the design to be printed.

Another object is the provision of such devices which permits of the taking and recording of readings of the preci se setting of a printing roller or plate thereon while in proper position in the press so that this same roller or plate thereon may be readily reset to the same precise position after removal of the roller from the press for storage and subsequent replacement therein for another run.

Numerous other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent as it is better understood from the following description, which, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, discloses apreferred embodiment thereof.

Accomplishment of these objects is effected by providing in a printing press a printing roller which may or may not carry a separate printing plate, and which is removably carried on a mounting comprising a. driving member and a driven member, connected by a roller supporting shaft which is rotated by the driving member and which is longitudinally slidable in both members so that it may be withdrawn to remove theroller. Inaddition to this, the driven member is keyed to the printing roller and independently of the driving. member is movable. axially and peripherally in relation to the roller supporting shaft to shift the roller axially and peripherally into a predetermined position to effect precise registration of the design to be printed.

Referring to the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is .a side elevation. of a portion of a printing press embodying the instant invention, parts being shown in section and parts in dot and dash lines;

FIGURE 2 is .an enlarged section view taken substantially along the line 2-2 in FIG. 1, and showing the printing roller and its mounting;

FIGURE 3 is a reduced scale elevational view of the parts shown in FIG. 2 and with the printing roll shown in removed position;

FIGURES 4 and 5 are enlarged'sectional views taken substantially along the lines ,4-4, 5-5 in FIG. 2; and

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FIGURE 6 is an enlarged end elevational View as viewed along the line 66 in FIG. 2.

As a preferred and exemplary embodiment of the instant invention, the drawings disclose principal parts of a printing press for printing a design, advertising matter or the like printed matter onto the outer surface of cylindrical articles A (FIG. 1) such as containers or container bodies suported on rotatable mandrels B arranged in spaced relation on a disc C carried on a rotatable shaft D. This is a conventional printing machine construction.

Printing of the articles A is effected preferably by an offset impression roller 11 (FIG. 1) which is rotated in timed relation with the disc C and which carries conventional impression pads 12 which engage against the articles A and thereby transfer the desired design to the articles. The design to be printed on the articles A is applied to the impression pads 12 by a printing plate 14 (FIG. 4) which is clamped or otherwise carried on a rotatable printing roller 15 and which receives ink from a transfer roller 16 engaging against an ink roller 17 operating in an ink reservoir 18. This is a conventional printing machine construction.

The printing roller 15 is rotatably mounted in a longitudinal cradle 21 (FIGS. 2 and 3) having end rocker trunnions 22 carried in a pair of spaced brackets 23 (FIG. 1) secured to a frame 24 which may be the main frame of the press.

An essential feature of the invention is the mounting for the printing roller 15 to permit of easy removal of the roller from the cradle 21 and to provide for precise setting or registry of the roller in the cradle for proper axial andpeipheral registration of the design to be printed as hereinbefore mentioned.

For these purposes the printing roller 15 is loosely carried on a roller supporting shaft 26. At one end, the left as viewed in FIG. 2, the supporting shaft 26 is formed with a shoulder 27 and a reduced diameter portion 28 which slidably fits into and is keyed to a freely rotatable drive sleeve or member 29 journaled in a bearing block 31 of the roller cradle 21. Adjacent the shaft shoulder 27 the drive member is formed with a retaining flange 33 against which the shoulder 27 is drawn tight by a locking bolt 34 disposed in the outer end of the drive member 29 and threadedly engaged in the end of the roller supporting shaft 26. Thus the roller supporting shaft 26 is provided with a driving connection with the drive member 29 but may be readily disconnected by removal of the bolt 34.

The driving member 29 is driven through a sprocket 36 mounted thereon and rotated by an endless chain 37 which takes over a driving sprocket 38 (FIG. 1) carried on a driving shaft 39 journaled in the frame 24 and rotated in any suitable maner. A spur gear 41 (FIG. 2) is provided on the driving member 29 for driving the impression roller 11 in unison with and in timed relation with the printing roller 15. A conventional split ring brake 42 is also provided on the. outer end of'the driving member 29 to provide for braking the printing roller when required.

At its opposite end (the right as viewed in FIG. 2), the roller supporting shaft 26 slidably fits into a freely rotatable driven sleeve or member 45 which is journaled in a bearing block 46 on the printing roller cradle 21. The printing roller 15 is releasably locked to this driven member 45 by Way of a spring pressed locking pin 47, carried in a hub 48 on one end of the printing roller. The hub 48 surrounds the inner end of the driven member 45 and the locking pin 47 extends into a locking bore 49 in the driven member thereby locking the two members together. By withdrawing the locking pin the two members may be disengaged.

Since the driving member 29 and the impression roller 11 are rotated in unison and timed relation, provision is made for setting the printing roller 15 peripherally in registration with the driving member so that the impression transferred to the impression roller will be properly located in peripheral relation thereto for proper transfer to and registration with the articles A to be printed. This is effected by a precise rotation in the desired direction between the driven member 45 and the printing roller supporting shaft 26.

For this purpose the outer end (at the right as viewed in FIG. 2) of the driven member 45 is formed with a housing 52 which houses a worm gear 53 slidably mounted on and keyed to the outer end of the printing roller supporting shaft 26. The worm gear 55 is retained in the housing by a retainer ring 55 which is secured to the housing and which is disposed in a groove 56 in the hub of the worm gear as shown in FIG. 2. The worm gear 53 meshes with a worm 58 (see also FIG. which is mounted in the housing and which is manually rotatable by way of a wrench or other tool.

Hence by rotating the worm 58 in the desired direction, the housing 52 and the driven member 45 are rotated as a unit relative to the worm gear 53 and the printing roller supporting shaft 26 keyed thereto, and this, through the locking pin 47 rotates the printing roller in the desired direction to effect the desired peripheral registration of the printing plate 14 with the printing to be efiected on the articles A.

Since this rotation of the printing roller 15 relative to its shaft 26 usually is effected through an angle of a few degrees, a vernier device comprising a set of vernier graduations 61 (FIG. 5) is provided on a dial 62 attached to the worm gear 53 for cooperation with a pointer 63 on the housing 52 for precise setting of the printing roller 15.

When a precise setting for a printing roller 15 has been established, a reading of the graduations 61 may be taken A similar provision is made for precisely setting the printing roller 15, longitudinally or axially of its supporting shaft 26 to locate the printing plate and the roller in proper longitudinal registration with the articles A to be printed. For this purpose the worm gear 53 is formed with a threaded hub extension 65 (FIG. 2) which i' carries a threaded hand nut 66 rotatably mounted on a reduced diameter portion 67 of the outer end of the shaft 26 and retained against displacement therefrom by a washer 68 tightly secured to the outer end of the shaft by a bolt 69/ The washer 68 is additionally pinned to the shaft to hold it against rotation relative to the shaft for the purpose of serving as a registration pointer plate having an indexing pointer 70 (see FIG. 6).

The hand nut 66 is readily rotatable on the threaded extension 65 of the worm gear 53 and when so rotated, slides the driven member along the printing roller supporting shaft 26 and thereby through the locking pin 47, shifts the printing roller 15 and the plate 14 carried thereon into a desired axial position to locate or set the plate in proper registration with the articles A.

After such a setting operation has been effected the hand nut 66 is locked in position by a lock nut '71 engaging a pipe thread on the hand nut or by way of a beveled flange engaging a beveled end of the hand nut. At spaced intervals around the threaded portion of the hand nut 4, block 46 and in addition for very close registration there is provided a second vernier device comprising a set of cooperating vernier graduations 76 (FIG. 6) on the hand nut 66 for cooperation with the pointer 70 on the Washer 68.

Hence when a precise setting for a printing roller 15 has been established, a reading of the graduations 73 and 76 may be taken and recorded for this particular roller and subsequently used for quick resetting of the roller upon removal of the roller for storage and subsequent replacement in the press for use, as will be hereinafter explained.

Thus with recorded readings for both axial and peripheral setting for any particular roller, that roller may be removed from the press and replaced again and quickly located or set in precise position with the assurance that its printing plate or printing type thereon will be in precise axial and peripheral registration for printing on the articles A.

When it is desired to remove such a printing roller from the press for storage or change of printing plate, it is only necessary to loosen and disengage the locking bolt 34 at the one end of the printing roller supporting shaft 26 and to release or disengage the locking pin 47 and then slide the shaft 26 along with the driven member 45 as a unitary structure, toward the right as viewed in FIG. 2 and into the position shown in FIG. 3. This slides the shaft 26 out of the printing roller and thereby frees the roller for removal from the press. Upon replacement of the roller or another roller it is only necessary to place the roller in approximate position and slide the shaft 26 back into place and then lock the roller and the driven member together and bolt the end of the shaft into the driving member. The exact resetting of the replaced roller as to axial and peripheral registration may then be readily effected by reference to the recorded reading.

There is thus provided a means for readily removing and replacing printing rollers in printing presses and for precisely resetting them into axial and peripheral registration with the work to be printed, quickly and efficiently.

It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form hereinbefore described being merely a preferred embodiment thereof.

We claim:

1. In a printing press, a demountable printing roller and a mounting for said roller, said mounting comprising fixed bearings positioned on opposite ends of said roller, rotatable sleeves journaled in said bearings, a shaft extending through said roller and into said sleeves, said shaft being releasably connected with said sleeves for rotation in unison therewith, driving means connected with one of said sleeves for imparting rotation through said one sleeve to said shaft, locking means on said roller releasably connected with said other sleeve for imparting rotation from said shaft through said other sleeve to said roller, and adjustment means carried on one of said sleeves and engageable with said shaft for effecting relative angular and axial movement between said sleeve and said shaft to selectively position said roller with respect to the articles to be printed.

2. A printing press of the character defined in claim 1, wherein said shaft is detachably locked at one end in axial abutment with a surface of said one sleeve to position said shaft in proper axial operating position.

3. A printing press of the character defined in claim 2, wherein said shaft is provided with a shoulder engageable against said one sleeve and said sleeve carries tightening means for drawing said shoulder tightly against said sleeve.

4. A printing press of the character defined in claim 1,

wherein said adjustment means comprises a worm gear connected to said shaft and a meshing worm mounted in said sleeve for effecting said relative angular movement, and a member rotatably connected to said shaft and threaded to said worm gear for effecting said axial movement.

5. A printing press of the character defined in claim 1, wherein said sleeve carrying said adjustment means is provided with two graduated scales which cooperate with two fixed indicators on said mounting to provide visual indication, respectively, of the angular and axial setting of said roller.

6. In a printing press, a demountable printing roller and a mounting for said roller, said mounting comprising a pair of spaced and axially aligned bearing blocks, a rotatable driving member journaled in one of said bearing blocks, a driven member rotatably and slidably disposed in the other of said bearing blocks, a shaft extending into each of said rotatable members and having one end keyed to said driving member and having its opposite end rotatably and slidably disposed in and projecting through said driven member, locking means in said driving member for removably retaining said shaft in place in said driving member, a printing roller mounted on said shaft, locking means in said roller and said driven member for removably locking said roller and said driven member together for rotation with said shaft and said driving member as a unitary structure, and roller registering devices mounted on said driven member and on the end of said shaft disposed in said driven member for peripherally and axially shifting said roller on said shaft to align said roller with work to be printed upon, said shaft and said driven member and said roller registering devices being formed as a connected unitary structure being rotatable in unison with and slidable axially out of said driven member bearing block when said shaft is unlocked from said driving member and said roller is unlocked from said driven member to detach said roller from said shaft for removal from said printing press.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,181,894 Huck Dec. 5, 1939 2,425,914 Blackley et a1 Aug. 19, 1947 2,460,504 Huebner Feb. 1, 1949 2,563,117 Hurley Aug. 7, 1951 2,711,691 Leavens June 28, 1955 2,905,086 Zahradnik Sept. 22, 1959 2,925,037 Fischer Feb. 16, 1960 2,989,918 Polglase June 27, 1961 

1. IN A PRINTING PRESS, DEMOUNTABLE PRINTING ROLLER AND A MOUNTING FOR SAID ROLLER, SAID MOUNTING COMPRISING FIXED BEARINGS POSITIONED ON OPPOSITE ENDS OF SAID ROLLER, ROTATABLE SLEEVES JOURNALED IN SAID BEARINGS, A SHAFT EXTENDING THROUGH SAID ROLLER AND INTO SAID SLEEVES, SAID SHAFT BEING RELEASABLY CONNECTED WITH SAID SLEEVES FOR ROTATION IN UNISON THEREWITH, DRIVING MEANS CONNECTED WITH ONE OF SAID SLEEVES FOR IMPARTING ROTATION THROUGH SAID ONE SLEEVE TO SAID SHAFT, LOCKING MEANS ON SAID ROLLER RELEASABLY CONNECTED WITH SAID OTHER SLEEVE FOR IMPARTING ROTATION FROM SAID SHAFT THROUGH SAID OTHER SLEEVE TO SAID ROLLER, AND ADJUSTMENT MEANS CARRIED ON ONE OF SAID SLEEVES AND ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID SHAFT FOR EFFECTING RELATIVE ANGULAR AND AXIAL MOVEMENT BETWEEN SAID SLEEVE AND SAID SHAFT TO SELECTIVELY POSITION SAID ROLLER WITH RESPECT TO THE ARTICLES TO BE PRINTED. 